Pen Meets Paper July 26'10

Opinion by Helge Nome
Some years ago a lady pulled into my yard with some government sponsored forms that she asked me to fill in. I complied and returned the information to her in due course. A while later I got a phone call from her requesting the information again as she had somehow misplaced it, or lost it on her computer system. My reluctance to go through the exercise again brought the response that it was mandatory for me to provide that information, by the authority of the Government of Canada. I declined her request and that was the end of the matter.
The present Government of Canada has now decided to do away with this way of collecting detailed information from households, in favor of a more simple and voluntary data collection form. This has brought about an outcry from the bureaucracy that collects and processes all this information, for the benefit of? Most likely themselves.
So, kudos to our conservative MPs who are getting sick and tired of an ever growing civil service(?) looking for feed stock to expand itself on.
The long gun registry is another case in point: You have on file all the guns of the law abiding citizens of this country, in contrast to the ones carried by all manner of crooks and thieves that are most definitely not registered. What is the rationale behind this other than giving the bureaucrats more information for the benefit of? Themselves again. Once more, our conservative MPs have shown some backbone and have stood up for what they were elected to do. There may be a faint hope for democracy yet.

The tail has been wagging the dog for far too long in this country. That is true both provincially and federally. Have you ever tried to contact a civil servant by phone lately.
It is literally impossible, even for an MP without having been provided with the phone number by that civil servant personally. Some time ago, when I was trying to contact a lady that I know, working for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in the nearby city of Red Deer, I was told that I actually had to walk into the building I believe she works in, and ask to see her there. Her telephone contact information could not be disclosed. So it would appear that our so called “civil servants” are hiding out of reach.
I wonder why?